1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly machine and in particular to a modular insertion unit to be used singly or in combinations on such a machine.
2. The Prior Art
It is common practice to manufacture certain types of electrical terminals by stamping and forming the terminals from a continuous web of metal with the resulting terminals being temporarily joined by one or more carrier strips. The strips of terminals can be fed to automatic machinery which will sequentially cut the individual terminals from their carrier strips and insert the terminals into respective cavities in appropriate connector housings. A variety of assembly machines are known for severing such terminals from the carrier strip and inserting them into connector housings. Most of these known types of assembly machines which are adapted to remove terminals from carrier strips and insert them into connector housings have one or more comparative shortcomings which limit their usefulness in one respect or another. For example, many of the known types of terminal inserters are relatively complex and, therefore, expensive to produce and maintain. Such machines can be used only where the volume of work performed justifies the high investment required. One known type of machine performs the inserting operation by shearing a terminal from the carrier strip and driving the terminal into a housing by means of a ram. A comparative shortcoming of this type of machine is that the terminal is not subject to close control during its movement. This lack of control can cause jamming to occur, particularly with certain types of terminals. This type of machine is usually sufficiently complex that an expert mechanic is needed to clear and, if necessary, reset the machine to get it into operating condition again. This is very costly in that not only is an expert mechanic required, but there is a substantial amount of down time incurred during which the assembly machine is not operating. This all goes towards driving production costs up a substantial amount.